May 25 2019 — Emma Graney — Edmonton Journal — Newly appointed Speaker Nathan Cooper has fired the clerk of the legislature. Merwan Saher, who was appointed by Cooper’s NDP predecessor days before the election, was let go on Friday. Saher was replaced by Shannon Dean, who has worked in various non-partisan roles at the Alberta legislature for more than 20 years. She was acting […]
May 1 2019 — Emma Graney — Edmonton Journal — British Columbia is launching a constitutional challenge against Alberta after Premier Jason Kenney proclaimed legislation to restrict oil supplies to the western province. Kenney promised repeatedly during the election that, should the UCP win, his cabinet would proclaim Bill 12 “within one hour” of being sworn in. Neither Kenney nor his Energy Minister Sonya Savage […]
Apr 8 2019 — Edmonton Journal — Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott’s expulsion from caucus may be virtually without precedent in Canadian political history, suggests a review of Library of Parliament records. No other MPs have resigned as cabinet ministers only to be subsequently ejected from their party’s caucus for taking a position on principle opposing their leader, according to parliamentary records […]
Apr 8 2019 — Elise Stolte — Edmonton Journal — A sales woman at a Drayton Valley auction says she’ll vote UCP because she always voted conservative. An oil services manager calls the UCP the lesser of two evils. Two women at the bakery lower their voices, glance around and say they actually agree with the comments local candidate Mark Smith made about homosexuality. Scandal […]
Jan 29 2019 — Edmonton Journal — You could call it a 24-hour Alberta politics mystery. The strange case of a Medicine Hat church facing a $50,000 carbon tax bill, a provincial levy so crippling that leaders had to plead with parishioners to dig deeper into their wallets. Except it wasn’t a mystery. It was a mistake. A polemic gone wrong.
Jan 26 2019 — Edmonton Journal — To call the United Conservative Party the “heavy” favourite heading into the upcoming provincial election is something of an understatement. The party has such an overwhelming lead in the polls that it is probably more accurate to characterize the UCP as the Stantec Tower favourite. Or the Milan Lucic favourite. Or pick a mountain in […]
Jan 18 2019 — Emma Graney — Edmonton Journal — Former United Conservative MLA Prab Gill has warned his ex-caucus colleagues of more UCP nomination scandals that could deflate the party’s chances in the upcoming election. In an email obtained by Postmedia, Gill pleaded with MLAs Wednesday afternoon to “pressure (leader) Jason Kenney into clearing the air” about the host of allegations over internal UCP […]
Jan 18 2019 — Emma Graney — Edmonton Journal — Disillusioned New Democrats in Calgary are threatening to quit the party if it doesn’t investigate what they say are problems that happened in a nomination race. Inderpreet Gill says he’s disappointed in the lack of concern NDP brass is showing over what he says were multiple instances of people providing false addresses during the Calgary-North […]
Jan 16 2019 — Clare Clancy — Edmonton Journal — Politicians will return to the legislature March 18 for a throne speech as they hustle to prepare for the upcoming election. Premier Rachel Notley has promised an election between March 1 and May 31, keeping the date within the three-month window outlined in legislation. But she hasn’t said whether the NDP will present a budget […]
Jan 14 2019 — Emma Graney — Edmonton Journal — Former Conservative MLA and UCP board member Ian Donovan has resigned, citing backroom deals, the party’s “dictatorship”-like control by leader Jason Kenney and party brass, and questions swirling around multiple nominations. A supporter of the United Conservative movement since its inception, Donovan wrote in an email to his colleagues on the Cardston-Siksika UCP board he […]
Jan 2 2019 — Emma Graney — Edmonton Journal — Alberta Party leader Stephen Mandel has unveiled a tidbit of his party’s 2019 election platform specific to Alberta’s oil sector. Mandel wants to establish a division within the economic development and trade ministry to change the conversation around — and social acceptance of — Alberta’s energy industry “through a proactive, positive, and productive method that […]
Dec 13 2018 — Keith Gerein — Edmonton Journal — Forty-nine more days. It’s barely a blip in the winter, a span long enough for only two more full moons to appear. Or, for the less astronomically inclined, less than one-quarter of a season for the Oilers and Flames. Whether you mark time by the moon or Connor McDavid, 49 days is all that remains […]
Dec 11 2018 — Emma Graney — Edmonton Journal — Premier Rachel Notley announced the province will “explore interest from the private sector” for building a new oil refinery in Alberta to help combat the ongoing oil price crisis. “For decades, Albertans have been talking about getting more value for our oil at home,” Notley said in a statement Tuesday. “So let’s stop the talk, […]
Nov 10 2018 — Keith Gerein — Edmonton Journal — A week ago, few people knew her name. Today, Robyn Luff is the talk of Alberta politics, particularly in NDP circles. To Premier Rachel Notley, she’s become something else: an unexpected problem. For those who haven’t been following along, the Calgary backbench MLA who had been nearly invisible in her 3½ years in office stepped […]
Nov 10 2018 — Edmonton Journal — Ousted New Democrat MLA Robyn Luff wants an independent investigation into her allegations of bullying and message control by party brass. If a single NDP MLA corroborates her claims, she wants Premier Rachel Notley to resign. If any United Conservative MLAs recount similar experiences, she wants party leader Jason Kenney out, too. But if no […]